Staff and certain key-symbols for musical notation.



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A. M. STRINGPIELD.

sun AND CERTAIN KEY SYMBOLS ron MUSICAL NOTATION.

I APPLICATION FILED JUNE 4, 1906.

1,004,215, Patented Sept. 26,1911.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ANNIE MAY STRINGFIELD, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

i STAFF AND CERTAIN KEY-SYMBOLS FOR MUSICAL NOTATION.

To (ZZZ whom 'it may concern:

Be it known that I, ANNIE MAY STRING- FIELD, a citizen of the United States, residing at New York city, in the county of New York and State of New York, have invented a new and Improved Staff and Certain Key-Symbols for Musical Notation, of which the following is a description.

The object of my invention is to devise a system of notation which will facilitate the reading and writing of music and which, by establishing and representing graphically a certain mathematical relation between the key notes of the different signatures and the harmonies of the different keys, will render it less difficult of being taught.

For a more particular description reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings which form a part of this specification and in which Figure 1 shows the improved staff in connection with the several signatures and their respective key notes; Figs. 2, 3 and 4 show myflkey symbols applied to the improved sta The usual bass and treble staffs as is well known consist of five equidistant, parallel lines, and for notes falling without the staff leger lines are employed. The location of intervals and the identification of notes under this system is a matter involving much painstaking and intricate counting of the lines singly since every line and every space is exactly like every other line and space and the only way to proceed is by one degree at a time.

It is therefore one of the objects of my invention to avoid this unbroken continuity of lines and spaces and provide a staff which has certain distinguishing features, and to this end I have arranged all the lines (staff and leger) in groups of three each as will be seen at a,a,a, a,a,a, etc., Fig. 1, and each group is separated from the adjacent group by the comparatively wide spaces y, y, etc. It will be observed that the staff as thus constituted has at least two salient features, to wit, the relatively wide spaces and the center line of each group and as these are invariably an interval of a fourth apart I call the arrangement a key meter since it is in fact a device by which wide intervals can'be at once measured without the necessity of proceeding by degrees as has been necessary heretofore. Additional prominence is obtained by placing correspond- Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed June 4, 1906.

Patented Sept. 26, 1911.

Serial No. 320,207.

ingly larger notes in the larger spaces. It will be observed by reference to Fig. 1 that the tonics of the succeeding signatures proceed by fourths and that each is located either in one of the larger spaces or on the center line, 00, of one of the groups. Thus a definite mathematical relation is established and shown whereby the tonic of any key can be readily found either by the method of fourths or by using the alternating larger spaces and center lines of the groups. Reading upward in Fig. 1 at IV, W we have the successive flat signatures and their key notes at 3 y, and reading downward through the bass staff a, 2 show the successive sharp signatures and gfig their key notes. The improved staff, moreover, is particularly valuable in ascertaining the harmonies and roots of the different keys when employed in conjunction with the symbolized arrange ments thereof shown in Figs. 2, 3 and 4. Thus, in Fig. 2 the notes belonging to the key of (.l-major are shown arranged in triangular formation and when the arrangement is applied to my improved staff it will be seen that the three fundamental basses S, V, and V, are at once given prominence, the dominant and subdominant because they fall in the larger spaces and the tonic because of its being at the apex of the triangle. The other tones, T, T, U, U, also naturally assume positions that assist materially in matters of analysis, the supertonic lying opposite the subtonie and the mediant opposite the submediant. In Fig. 2 (II and III) a similar relation obtains the keys, however, being the relative minor and the major made minor, respectively.

It will be noted that according to my system each key is started either from a large space or from the center line of a group and therefore a fourth upward and a fourth downward from the key note will always place the subdominant and dominant opposite each other and prominently displayed either because of their larger size or because of their location on the center lines of the groups. This, of course, is very useful in teaching the construction and analysis of chords as it associates the fundamental bases with the angles of a triangle and places the notes of similar analytical names opposite each other, and the symbol itself is constructed on the principle of fourths which, as has already been seen, is the underlying idea of the key progression depicted in Fig.

1. Attention is also called to the fact that the system has a certain relation to the alphabet as the names of the larger notes, reading from top to bottom in Fig. 1, fol low in regular order the alphabetic arrange ment of letters and this will undoubtedly greatly assist in identifying the notes and fixing various matters concerning intervals in the minds of pupils.

Fig. 3 shows another type of key symbol devised by me and which while involving essentially the same idea as disclosed in connection with Fig. 2 proposes a ditl'erent arrangement of the notes, the tonic S being here connected to the dominant O and subdominant P (which are the large notes as before) by hyphens or short lines and similarly connected to the mediant and submediant, O and P, the subtonic and supertonic Q being placed between the dominant and subdominant and forming therewith the chord of the dominant seventh. The hyphenated notes form the other harmonies of the key, as will be readily seen.

Fig. i (I) shows a design of key symbol in which S, the tonic, is connected by hyphens to S, the dominant, and the latter similarly connected to the notes, let, '5, and 6, so as to indicate clearly the several liarmonies. S, j, 3 indicates another chord of the group. Fig. Li; (II) shows a similar de sign wherein the supertonic and subtonic u and z" are made the center of the formation and connected to the other tones t, S, 1" and w by hyphens.

I claim as my invention:

1. In a system of musical notation, a stait' with lines grouped into threes with intervening wide spaces between the groups and narrow spaces between the lines, ordinary notes on the lines and in the narrow spaces, and corresponding large notes in the wide spaces.

In combination, a staff having its lines grouped into threes with intervening wide spaces between the groups and narrow spaces between the lines, and a key symbol embodying a triangular formation of the seven tones of a key, the tonic, dominant and subdominant being at the angles of said formation and each being connected to the tonic by a natural progression of two tones. 3. The combination with a statf consisting of lines grouped into threes with intervening wide spaces between the groups and narrow spaces between the lines, of key sym bols thereon in which the several notes of the keys are arranged in substantially symmetrical relation to a note or group of notes so as to present to the eye in diagrammatic form the several fundamental harmonics of the keys.

ANNIE MAY STRINGFIELD. Witnesses ROY H. STRINGFIELD, I-I. CHESTER STnINerIELD.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Yatents, Washington, D. C. 

